When Stones Fall
by DARWIN51
Summary: Jody shows Mitch and Andrea his new girlfriend, but he doesn't know that Andrea has a past with this girl, and the girl doesn't know it either. A short piece of a larger story. Andrea's past. Angst, Friendship. First story of category! Only 8 years late.


**This is just a very, very, very small experimental snippet of my larger story of Andrea's life. I know almost no one has seen this show so this is purely experimental, for shits and giggles. But hey, if I actually get unexpected feedback, I'll consider adding more parts, it's happened before. It's a little rough, I wasn't sure how to convey good dialog and text when the reader likely doesn't know much about the characters. So here's this. **

Crumbs.

"Is your shift over?" Mitch asked, rounding the corner out of the Stonehouse Grill office and towards the employee lockers.

"Yeah. I can't stay long though, I'm meeting some friends later." Andrea was pulling her sweater out of her locker and putting her waitress' apron back in. She took her phone out of the apron pocket and handed it to Mitch to hold while she started to put her sweater on.

"Oh, well Jody wanted us to meet his new girlfriend really quick."

"New girlfriend?"

"Yeah. I guess not "new", apparently they're somewhat serious. Somewhat."

Andrea reached to put her sweater back in her locker just as Jody appeared in the hall, "Mitch, she's waiting. Andrea, you wanna come meet Rachel?"

"Uh, sure-" She started, but Jody had already disappeared.

Mitch and Andrea started off through the kitchen. "You're not jealous." Mitch stated.

"No, why would I be?" Andrea asked.

"I don't know. I think Jody was expecting you to be jealous."

"And he's getting some sort of rise out of that?" She smirked.

"…You know Jody."

They approached a table where Jody was standing, and a girl in her early twenties sat in the booth seat. She had light brown hair that fell in thick strands that curled at the ends, and was smiling at them.

"Rachel, this is my brother Mitch, and our friend Andrea I was telling you about. Guys, this is Rachel Adamson. So, like, get acquainted or something, because I think she'll be sticking around for a while." Jody smiled and rubbed his hands together quickly, which he usually does when he's hungry. "I'll grab us some drinks."

Mitch took the initiative and began talking first. "So uh, Rachel. It's nice to finally meet you." He gave a warm smile, and moved to sit down, but realized Andrea wasn't moving with him.

Andrea just stood there, staring at Rachel uncomfortable, as pale as a ghost.

Mitch frowned at her and turned around to whisper in her ear, so Rachel couldn't see, "Are you alright?"

After a short delay, Andrea swallowed and nodded, whispering "Yeah. I'm fine."

Mitch turned back to sit down, as Jody returned with a tray of drinks.

Just as Jody returned, Andrea turned and began walking towards the kitchen.

Thinking she was acting jealous, Jody set the tray down on the table and smiled at Rachel, saying sweetly, "I'll be right back."

He turned to follow Andrea, and Mitch was right on his heels, afraid he might yell at her or something.

Jody shoved the kitchen door open, and called out to Andrea, who was across the kitchen, "Hey! What the hell?!"

Not wanting to draw more attention, Andrea stopped and slowly turned around. "I need to go-"

"You know that was extremely rude. Just because seeing me with another woman makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean you have to act so-"

"Not everything is about you, Jody!" She shouted, drawing more attention.

Jody paused, "…So what's your problem, then? Because she was actually really looking forward to meeting you guys, and she didn't do anything to deserve your attitude-"

"Because she killed my sister!" Andrea said, thankfully a bit quieter than her last statement.

Both Jody and Mitch froze, and silence fell over the kitchen.

Mitch asked softly, "What…what do you mean?"

Figuring she had already caused too much of a disturbance to go without an explanation now, and she really just wanted to get her point across to Jody and leave, she said quietly, "Look, I knew she looked familiar when I saw her, and when I heard that name…She was one of the girls who was there when Amy drowned. I understand that it was a very long time ago, and that they were all very young, and that it's really not her fault. I have nothing against her I just…need to take a minute. Not for her, not for you…for myself."

She turned and left quietly, as the kitchen staff were forced to focus on their jobs again, no matter how interesting workplace drama was.

Mitch and Jody still stood in the doorway of the kitchen, shocked, and kind of unsure what to do. In all the time they'd known Andrea, she'd mentioned her family only a handful of times. They had first met her when she was 9 years old, only a few weeks after her sister died, and she moved in next door. With how little she ever mentioned what happened to her sister, or the rest of her family, it was easy for the Crumbs to tell themselves she probably just wasn't affected by it. So to hear her mention her sister just now, in front of all the kitchen staff, well, you could say it was more than a shock to Mitch and Jody.

Jody reluctantly turned to go back to Rachel, waiting at the table, while Mitch contemplated going after Andrea or just leaving it. Suddenly, Mitch realized he still had her phone in his pocket.

He ran out the back, past the empty lockers and office, and opened the back employee's entrance, but her car was already gone.


End file.
